Best Western Premier Foresta Stockholm

... out to breakfast. It was really beautiful sitting on the deck overlooking the archipelagos of Stockholm. We called Lennart (my cousin) and started out for Jafalla, a small community just outside of Stockholm. What a wonderful feeling seeing someone after 21 years! It was like we had seen each other just yesterday. We wandered out to the newly built Golf Club in the area had consumed a wonderful lunch with good conversation and a lot of memories and teasing about things I did when ...

... ten dollars.

One of the things that really surprised me upon arriving is how efficient, clean, and well layed out it is here. Even as I waited for my baggage at Ärlanda airport, attendents were bringing carts to people and it only took about 10 minutes wait to get the bags. They several options for public transportation from the airport to the city ...

... party (thanks to Jon) and we spent the rest of the night making drunken fools of ourselves with Tricky's back up singer and Bass player. I honestly can't remember getting back to the hotel, but thats where I woke up the next morning. After checking out we made our way back into Stockholm and organised train tickets up to Tromso, which although is located in Norway, is almost directly north of Sweden. The train didn't leave until late in the afternoon, and although it was ...

... here I come!! You never know, I might decide to don a viking helmet, change my name to Frigg and yell "Argh" after everything!! (Is my sterotype a little off of modern day Scandinavia??!! Hehe). So, I'll write again next week with an update of how it all went!! Living the dream, baby!! "Argh" (Hehehe) xx Natty

Back in January I had been chatting to my mate Lars in Sweden about heading over there for his birthday in February. Sadly money was tight so we had to postpone it. Lars then disappeared off to South/Central America for 5 months so when he returned I booked some tickets and told him to get ready! I decided to fly with Sterling Airways for this trip for a couple of reasons. The main reason was they fly from Gatwick which is only 30 miles from my house and ...

... with a can of sauce, free pasta from the hostel, avocados and fresh strawberries for dessert! mmmmm. We met some more interesting characters in our hostel. There are heaps of Aussies here, most of them very strange. Any way, we were pretty beat so settled in for some blog catching up and trip planning. We've got two more days here in Stockholm before moving on. More to see tomorrow! All our best from Sweden Dan and Gabrielle

... well it isn't too small, it is probably a top 10 city in Sweden size wise. Anyhow as I've been looking at the receipts, the tax is always included in the final price but you see this thing called MOMS 25% on the Bottom. What is this you say, "TAX", 25% Tax, wow that is very high. Herb said that there were many individuals forming themselves as corporations to avoid taxes, a art of tax evasion. After we checked in to our hotel we just had to ...

... here, but yesterday was sunny and 10 degrees, whatever that means...It means cold. (Why dont we join the rest of the world and go metric). I also stopped at the grocery store and did some shopping. For the next 2 ½ months, I will probably subsist solely on bagels, packaged sandwiches, vitamins, and beer. Last night, I went to the bar right next to my hostel. It was karaoke night, so I got to watch swedes belt out hits ...

... was absolutely starving by now (I hadn't wanted to give Clownair any more revenue than necessary) we decided to rig up the small tray barby and some marinaded steaks that ended up tasting delightful due to their slow cooking over a nice bed of pine charcoal which I have to say is much better than those sooty fire stone briquettes we're used to at home. Steak dinner and ...

... I had my doubts that this was going to be a good meal. To my surprise it was quite good and hit the spot. I think what saved it was the Swedish meatballs. If there is one food they know how to make up there it is meatballs. We continued to rest the rest of the day. Talking and relaxing with our good friend knowing the next day we would have to leave early to the next part of our trip. Which ended up being one of the craziest parts of the trip.